Windows app not recognising Emby Premiere

[ProjectBlue 1]

I have a licensed Emby server recently updated to 4.9.5.0 running on UNRAID.

Since restarting the UNRAID server my Windows machines (Emby for Windows 2.310.2.0) can no longer play anything from the server and get the message:

"Unlock this feature with an active Emby Premiere subscription."

"If you have an active Emby Premiere subscription, ensure you've setup Emby Premiere in your Emby Server Dashboard, which you can access by clicking Emby Premiere within the main menu."

I can play everything fine from my Android devices and Windows also worked fine up until the server reboot.

 

I have tried:

Signing into the app with another user.

Resetting/Repairing the app via Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > Emby on Windows.

 

Emby server logs attached.

 

Any help would be appreciated!

embyserver.txt

Edited Tuesday at 09:39 AM by ProjectBlue

[Abobader 3501]

Hello ProjectBlue,

** This is an auto reply **

Please wait for someone from staff support or our members to reply to you.

It's recommended to provide more info, as it explain in this thread:

Thank you.

Emby Team

[ebr 16442]

Hi.  That log has virtually nothing in it but, based on your description, my guess is something in the browser you are using to try and play is blocking the license check.  Ad blockers, privacy badger, etc.

[ProjectBlue 1]

3 hours ago, ebr said:

Hi.  That log has virtually nothing in it but, based on your description, my guess is something in the browser you are using to try and play is blocking the license check.  Ad blockers, privacy badger, etc.

Thank you for the suggestion but this issue isn't affecting browser playback, only the Emby App for Windows from the Microsoft store is affected as mentioned in the original post.

Playback via browser (Edge/Firefox) works fine, even when transcoding.

Playback via Android app works fine (again, even while transcoding).

I'd also like to add that all devices are accessing the server locally via LAN - not the internet.

I have noticed that the Emby App for Windows was updated last night to version 2.310.0 on both of the affected Windows PC's. There were no issues before this update.

 

To me, all evidence points towards the Emby for Windows 2.310.0 update causing this issue.

 

Is there any way to revert the Emby App on the Microsoft Store to an older version?

Edited Tuesday at 04:38 PM by ProjectBlue

[ebr 16442]

1 hour ago, ProjectBlue said:

To me, all evidence points towards the Emby for Windows 2.310.0 update causing this issue.

Can you try re-installing manually?

And, when you do so, pay very careful attention to any popups requesting access to the network or internet...

[ProjectBlue 1]

53 minutes ago, ebr said:

Can you try re-installing manually?

And, when you do so, pay very careful attention to any popups requesting access to the network or internet...

What do you mean by manually? Can you please provide steps to follow?

As far as I'm aware there is only one installation option for Emby on Windows and that's the Microsoft store?

I've already tried uninstalling the app (Windows 11 Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > Emby > Uninstall)

And then re-installing the app (Microsoft Store > Emby > Install/Get)

I know the app can access the server just fine as it allows me to sign in, play media (for a minute) and browse the libraries of the server.

Edited Tuesday at 06:48 PM by ProjectBlue

[ProjectBlue 1]

I'm still unable to use the Emby Windows app. I'm still getting nagged with the "Unlock Feature" pop up when trying to play anything.

[ProjectBlue 1]

I have a licensed Emby server recently updated to 4.9.5.0 running on UNRAID as a Docker container.

 

As you can see from the above image; my Premiere license is active on the server.

 

However, I'm suddenly getting the following message on the Emby for Windows app on all of my Windows PC's:

"Unlock this feature with an active Emby Premiere subscription."

"If you have an active Emby Premiere subscription, ensure you've setup Emby Premiere in your Emby Server Dashboard, which you can access by clicking Emby Premiere within the main menu."

I can play everything fine from my Android devices without limitation and Windows also worked fine up until yesterday.

I am also able to transcode media when playing via a browser.

 

I have tried:

Signing into the app with another user.

Switching server and using the server's IP address instead of hostname.

Resetting/Repairing the app on Windows via Settings > Apps > Installed Apps > Emby > Repair/Reset.

Reinstalling the app via the Microsoft Store.

Deleting the affected devices from the Devices section on the server.

I'd also like to add that all devices are accessing the server locally on the same network via LAN - not via the internet.

I have noticed that the Emby App for Windows was updated last night to version 2.310.0 on both of the affected Windows PC's. There were no issues before this update.

 

Emby server logs attached.

 

Any help would be appreciated!

embyserver(1).txt

Edited Wednesday at 11:50 AM by ProjectBlue

[seanbuff 1373]

@ProjectBlueyou already have a post open for this issue, please refrain from creating new threads for the same topic. 

Let's keep the conversation to a single thread, thanks.

[ebr 16442]

2 hours ago, ProjectBlue said:

I'm still unable to use the Emby Windows app. I'm still getting nagged with the "Unlock Feature" pop up when trying to play anything.

That most likely means it cannot access our server over the internet.  Make sure nothing is blocking it.

[ProjectBlue 1]

41 minutes ago, seanbuff said:

@ProjectBlueyou already have a post open for this issue, please refrain from creating new threads for the same topic. 

Let's keep the conversation to a single thread, thanks.

Hi Sean, I realised with my old post that I had posted in the Server section whereas the issue lies with the Windows app so I thought this would be a better place to post it.
Feel free to delete the old thread in the Servers section.

I still need assistance with this... I'm paying for a subscription I can't use - very frustrating!

[ProjectBlue 1]

13 minutes ago, ebr said:

That most likely means it cannot access our server over the internet.  Make sure nothing is blocking it.

Surely that would mean my Premiere key wouldn't "activate" after pasting it into the Premiere page on the server though?

I tried removing the premiere key and then re-adding it and it allowed me to do this and shows a valid status as shown in my original screenshot.

Nothing has changed on the network since this issue started and nothing outbound is being blocked from the server.

 

Surely also; if the premiere status wasn't valid or couldn't access your servers I wouldn't be able to transcode on my web browser and Android device - correct?

[ebr 16442]

The server and the Windows app are two completely different processes.  So, no, the fact that the server can validate does not mean that the Windows app can too. Please check your firewall settings.

[ProjectBlue 1]

7 minutes ago, ebr said:

The server and the Windows app are two completely different processes.  So, no, the fact that the server can validate does not mean that the Windows app can too. Please check your firewall settings.

I work in IT - I know that.

I've just tried disabling Windows Firewall completely on one of the affected machines... (no other firewall in use) Same issue.

 

Like I said before: No changes to the machine, no changes to the network.

The only thing that has changed since this started happening is the app was updated automatically via the Microsoft store the night before.

[ProjectBlue 1]

I've just tried an old laptop which I don't really use.

Installed Emby and signed in, this allowed me to play media from my server without the nag message.

I believe the Emby app is corrupted somewhere during the update on the 2 affected PC's.

Is there a way to do a clean-install of Emby on these machines? Doing it via the Windows Store/Settings  app has no affect on the issue.

[ebr 16442]

Windows will often change Firewall settings during an update.  First, make sure that the network on those affected PCs isn't set to "Public".

[ProjectBlue 1]

38 minutes ago, ebr said:

Windows will often change Firewall settings during an update.  First, make sure that the network on those affected PCs isn't set to "Public".

The firewalls are set to "Domain" as they should be and always have been. (They are domain-joined machines). Not to mention there's been no Windows updates recently (updates are centrally managed with WSUS).

I changed the MAC address on both machines to a brand new MAC address (they are virtual machines) and rebooted and now the Emby app works as expected so I assume the server corrupted something (which somehow wasn't resolved by removing the devices from the server) and the new MAC address forced them to register as new clients and retrieve the Premiere license properly...

 

I have no idea how the inner workings of Emby handle this so this is just a guess but happy to say this is now resolved!  

Edited Wednesday at 03:58 PM by ProjectBlue

[ebr 16442]

We don't care about MAC addresses but security software does.  I still suspect something in that realm was blocking the traffic.  Glad you got it going.

[wookie_jmc 4]

My Emby Windows app is doing the same thing today. I have made no changes to this machine before the issue. I use TinyWall with the Windows firewall disabled. TinyWall is not blocking it, nor have there been any network changes before this issue.

The web apps work fine and register my subscription. The Windows app requests for Emby premier credentials trying to play anything. It will not accept my Premier key, though it shows and worked fine until today.

EDIT: A reinstall did not change this behavior at all.

Edited Wednesday at 10:50 PM by wookie_jmc

[ProjectBlue 1]

11 hours ago, ebr said:

We don't care about MAC addresses but security software does.  I still suspect something in that realm was blocking the traffic.  Glad you got it going.

Strange, maybe it's something to do with the way the Emby server detects which device you're using and the new MAC address (which means new IP address) triggers it to re-register the device on the Emby server and thus refresh the Premiere info? Again just guessing here, I'm an infrastructure and hardware guy, not a developer I noticed that after changing the MAC address on my network card there  was a second entry for the same machine under "Devices" on the Emby server  (so I had 2 of "PC-1" and 2 of "PC-2").

I checked the logs in my AntiVirus (Windows Defender) on both affected machines and nothing was being blocked there.

This is too coincidental to have happened on 2 identical machines at the same time with no changes except Emby app being updated for it to be a configuration issue considering they were working fine up to this point - this is 100% a bug of some kind in the recent update - either for the Emby Windows app or the Emby server.

[ebr 16442]

On 6/11/2026 at 6:23 AM, ProjectBlue said:

this is 100% a bug of some kind in the recent update - either for the Emby Windows app or the Emby server

I really don't see any logic path to that being possible.

When you reset the MAC, you basically completely reset the network.  You also said this is a VM.  All of those variables are much more likely at the root of why it is different now.

[ProjectBlue 1]

2 hours ago, ebr said:

I really don't see any logic path to that being possible.

When you reset the MAC, you basically completely reset the network.  You also said this is a VM.  All of those variables are much more likely at the root of why it is different now.

There's no way to know for sure I guess... but the fact that a second person had this issue (wookie_jmc above) and as previously noted; there was nothing being blocked, no changes to the machines or network before this issue started and the only change was that the Emby app updated to the latest version on both machines...

Seems like pretty sound logic to me,  VM's have nothing to do with this - I'm just lucky they were VM's so that I could quickly fix this.

[wookie_jmc 4]

My issue still persists. I double checked that TinyWall excepted Emby for Windows. The app still shows my premier key and I hit save on that page. The app responded that my key had been saved, but trying to play anything still fails. The error comes up that I don't have a Premier Subscription. 

I have other Windows and Linux machines with the Emby app and none of them are showing this behavior. They work correctly with nothing unexpected.

Should I include logs or try some other t-shooting steps?